Paper Makes A Snowflake

How often have you made paper snowflakes? The magic of making snowflakes out of ordinary paper never gets old, for kids or grownups.

To make a paper snowflake, very light tissue paper works best for little hands. Start with a square and fold it in half and then half again. If the paper is thin enough, it can be folded once more and kids can still cut. Today, Little Sister got to discover how this works. She wasn’t very interested in cutting out pieces, just making a few cuts along the edges. Because the paper was so thin, some bits came out from that and Big Sister helped to cut out a few more pieces. Little Sister was surprised when the paper was unfolded to see a snowflake and promptly declared “Beautiful.” She floated the snowflake around the room and then tucked it under a blanket on the sofa for a nap.

Somewhere there must be a metaphor for how it’s the holes in the paper that transforms it into a work of art. Nothing is added, it’s only taken away. The magic comes from the empty spaces.

However it works, cutting a paper snowflake is a winter activity that can be done by kids of various ages. Scissors are a particularly tricky learning tool to handle and need lots of practice. Cutting play dough is very much easier than cutting even thin paper, but fortunately, there are no lines to follow with snowflakes. As long as the cuts do not go all the way through to the other side, the paper will stay in one piece.

Real snowflakes are white, but kids can cut any color of paper. If you use paper than it is a little thicker, kids can decorate it with crayons, markers, or paint. A few dabs of glitter glue will make for sparkles that dance in the sun. Careful though–can paper snowflakes turn into real snow?

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